Dados do Trabalho

Título

DESCRIPTION OF THE MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM'S PERCEPTION OF PALLIATIVE CARE IN THE TREATMENT OF UROLOGIC CANCERS IN A REFERENCE CENTER IN THE AMAZON: A CLINICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

Resumo

Introduction: Palliative care (PC) is a comprehensive care approach that supports patients with chronic, life-threatening illnesses and their families through awareness and education about the disease and symptom control. Despite its multiple benefits, access to PC remains a challenge in emerging countries such as Brazil. Objectives: This study highlights the barriers to accessing PC services by describing how professionals working with patients affected by urological malignancies perceive care and the importance of palliative care in the public oncology sector in a reference institution of the north region of Brazil. Methods: An exploratory and descriptive study with a qualitative and quantitative approach was conducted with 50 multidisciplinary team professionals. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee. Results: The professionals were unaware of when PC should be initiated and indicated, but they understood the importance and role of PC for cancer patients, which explains why the highest percentage identified the approach given to patients as inadequate. Conclusion: It can be seen that knowledge about PC is limited and, as a result, professionals experience dilemmas when dealing with the team, patient, and family. Knowing how to deal with patients suffering from life-threatening illnesses is complex and difficult. Given this, the difficulty in implementing PC can be seen due to the inability of professionals, since their training, is influenced by the curative model of health.

Palavras Chave

Palliative care; PROSTATE CANCER; treatment